Building blocks, and in particular building blocks with coupling portions are well known and widely popular among children. Some conventional blocks have a body that includes an upper portion and several walls that extend downwardly from the upper portion. The downwardly extending walls define a cavity or aperture therebetween. Typically, one or more studs extend from the upper portion of the block. The cavity or aperture defined by the walls is sized to receive the studs of another block so that a user may stack or build multiple blocks on top of each other to create various assemblies. For example, children may typically couple multiple blocks together to build or create toy vehicles. Generally, the studs of a first block are inserted into an aperture or cavity of a second block in order to stack or build the first and second blocks or otherwise couple them together.
More specifically, conventional blocks that are coupled to each other are retained in a coupled arrangement by the friction between the outer surfaces of the stud or studs of one block and the walls and other surfaces of another block with which the studs are in contact. The outer side surface or surfaces of a stud are perpendicular to the upper portion of the block from which they extend. Similarly, the walls or surfaces of a block that are engaged by a stud are perpendicular to the upper portion of that block. The perpendicular orientations of the surfaces of the studs and the walls allow the studs to be inserted into the cavity or aperture, with the contact surfaces sliding along each other, but also limit the manner in which blocks can be coupled together.
Due to this, a portion of a first block must be vertically aligned with at least a portion of a second block in order to couple the first and second blocks together. Thus, conventional blocks cannot be coupled to each other in laterally adjacent configurations (i.e. configurations where at least a portion of a first block is laterally adjacent to a second block while also coupled to the second block). Among other restrictions caused by this limitation, if a building block is utilized as a chassis for a toy vehicle, the wheels will be required to extend beneath the building block, instead of being included substantially within the chassis, thereby limiting the structural strength, design, and stability of a toy vehicle constructed from building blocks. Accordingly, a building component which provides for at least one laterally adjacent coupling is desired.
Additionally, to ensure that blocks may be coupled together in the manner described above, such blocks must be manufactured with very high tolerances for the surfaces of the studs and walls because if either of the walls or surfaces varies from the perpendicular orientation, the friction between them will be insufficient to retain the blocks together. In order to obtain this tolerance at a reasonable cost, conventional blocks are typically manufactured from plastic and plastic-like materials. However, while plastic may enable cheaper manufacturing costs, plastic building blocks are not sturdy enough to absorb repeated stresses and strains imparted thereon and thus, may deteriorate over time when exposed to such forces. For example, conventional, plastic blocks may be unable to absorb the repeated stress imparted onto a toy vehicle constructed from conventional blocks from a toy vehicle booster, such as the toy boosters disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,366,508 and 6,793,554, the disclosures of which are each hereby incorporated in their entireties. Accordingly, building blocks, and in particular building components which may be used to build toy vehicle assemblies, manufactured from more robust materials, such as zinc, are desired.